Closure means for tins



m 25, 1933. E SCHMIDT 1,919,574

I CLOSURE MEANS FOR TINS Filed Oct. 2, 1930 l 3 fig. 2

v 470M701" 5 M241 Patented July 25, 1933 res "ERNST SCHMIDT, OF BERLIN, GERIVIANY CLOSURE Mna Application filed October 2 asaseri ino.

This invention relates to cans and other sheet metal containers, which for the sake of brevity will hereafter'be referred to as tins, and deals more .particularly with the 5 lids or covers of such.containers.'

It is the primary object'of the present inventionto provide a novel closure meansrf orthese tins, wherein the lid, after-its:application to the tin, is locked in position in such manner that an automatic opening by reason of blows, jolts, etc. brought to bear on :the exterior isimpossible, whereas on the other hand the tin may'be'readily opened at any time by mutual pressure applied to the edge of the lid. 7 i 1 Alternatively, the closure may alsobe of the screw kind, in'which case, by reason of the particular construction of the interengaging parts, the thread is caused to be locked, and in addition what may be termed light application of the lid to the tin is ren-' dered possible, in such manner that the tin is'capable ofbeing firmly and tightly closed, but the lid nevertheless removed with. the

5 greatest ease.

Other objects and advantages of the invention willbecome apparent as thedescription proceeds.

The essence of the invention consists in' the fact that by 'm'eans of a groove or elevated, portion on the'tree edge of the tin or the lid, or both, the edge or edges are caused to extend resiliently in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the tin. As the raised por- 5 tion is extended, the outer diameter thereof is diminished, so that the lid may be readily placed over the tin. The lid at a point of its periphery where the raised portion of the tin is located in the final position, i. e., when the 40 lid has been applied, is bulged out to a cer-r tain extent into which bulge the resiliently extensible raised portion of the tin is caused to snap and thus firmly hold the lid in relation to the tin. It is an essential pointboth as regards the lockingaction as well as the opening of the tin that the raised portion is situated directly'on the free edge, as it is this measure which renders possible the resilient extension of the raised portion in the direc- 99 tion of the longitudinal'axis.

drawing, in which I,

NS FOR TINS.

455992, and in Germany Octo ber 5, 1929.

The closuremeans as above described. has

inits associationthe peculiarity that the same may be readily opened uponthe application of .pressure to two diametrically opposite 1 points of the edge of the tin. Underthe action of such a pressure the tin is caused to spring open. To avoid the occurrence of this action in the case of already packed tins by reason of accidental exertion, the arrange- 1 ment in one particular formof embodiment is such that the upper edge of the'tin by the impression of two grooves possesses an S-,

shaped sectional form, and when the tin'is closed the edge ofthe lid is disposed in guarded position in the'lower groove within the contour of the tin. j

Theinvention will now be described more 'fullyjwith reference to the accompanying Fig. 1 shows in diagrammatical iform a sectional view of the open tinwith thelid situated thereover. i a V ,F'g. 2 a modified form'of the embodie ment according to Fig. 1. a K 3 shows in diagrammatical form the tin viewed from aboveq a I p Fig. 4 shows a tin fitted with screwclosurermeans, the tin'being shown in elevation 1 and the lid in section, while i F'g. 5 shows"n diagrammatical form the sectionalvie wof part of the tin; capable of being closed by the lid depicted in Fig.4.

Referring now to Fig. 1 of the drawing, 1 is the tin, which is made of sheetmetal an'd terminates at its upper edge in the raised 3 portion 2. As shown by the drawing, the free edge of thetin simultaneously constitutes the free bounding edge of the raised section. The

by 3. The same is bent'slightly outwards .at the lower edge 1, and towards the upper i I edge is furnished with an annular bulge 5. When the lid 3 is placed on the tin 1 in the direction of the arrow P, at first the lower edge 4 moves against the raised portion'2,

and upon the further movement of the lid 3 the raised portion is caused to extend in the direction of the double arrow p assuming,

in exaggerated form, the position indicated in dotted lines (2a) in Fig. 1. In this 0011- appertaining lid'is designated r dition the lid may be placed completely over the tin until finally the raised portion 2 01' 2a moves into the annular bulge 5 of the lid and, springing back to a certain extent, assumes a position therein. The lid is in this manner locked with the tin, and cannot be released therefrom merely by; drawing on the same. It is, as shown by Fig. 3, necessary to apply to the edge of the tin at two diametrically opposite points a pressure in the direction of the arrowp in such manner that the lid is caused to be lifted. a

Fig. 2 shows a form of embodiment in' which release of the lid by reasonof forces applied accidentally to the edge is rendered impossible. there are provided at the edge of the tin tw'o'grooves or raised portions. 6 and 7, the

one in opposition to the other, i. e., the one 6 being. raised from the normal plane in a direction towards the inside andthe other towards the outside, the twotogether being in approximately S-form. As in the case of the first embodiment, the portion .7 as.-

sumes the entended form indicated indotted line 7a when the lid 3a is placed on the tin 1a. The lid, in this case possesses an edge portion 8, which is rolled over outwardly and, when thelid 3a has beenplaced on the tin 1a, is situated together with the adj acent parts in completely protected fashion within the space bounded by the portion 6.

With this embodiment itisimpos'sible, forexample, in the case of tins packed in rows v for an adjacent-row of tins to press against the edge. in such manner asto cause auto.-

matic opening.

WVith regard to Fig. 4,1bis the upper part of the tin, whereby the raised portion 9 is j constructed to constitute a thread. The apperta'inin lid 3?) possesses at the lower edge a. groove 10 which is also constructed to represent a thread. The groove 10 is the inner or female thread and the raised portion 9 the outer or male thread. lVhen the lid 36 is screwed on to the tin 1b, the lower edge 11 of the lid 3?) moves into engagement with the edge 12 of the tin 16. Since the groove 10, as in the examples described above, is

In this form ofembodiment by Letters Patent is capable of extending to a certain extent in the longitudinal direction, it is possible to screw the lid on to the tin to a slight addi-' tional extent, obtaining in this manner a perfectly tight closure and, at the same time, due to the longitudinal extension of the thread, as indicated by the dotted line 10a, causing a locking of the screw connection. The lid 36 may also be screwed on to a tin 1c of the kind depicted in Fig. 5, wherein the thread, due to the shaping of the raised 7 portion 10b, is also capable of being extended to a certain degree in the longitudinal direction of the tin, the same advantages then being obtained as described above.

It will be understood that no restriction is made to the specific forms of embodiment shown, which are merely illustrated by way of example, and that various modifications terniiinating in afreeupper edge, said lid having a flat top portion of relatively small diameter and a skirt portion of substantially greater diameter than the flattop portion, the, skirt portioir'of the lid being bulged out wardly to form a peripheral outwardly disposed rib: substantially below the juncture of theskirt with the flat top of the lid, said skirt portion extending below the ribtherein and terminating in a flared or enlarged periphery, said peripheral ribs being completely circular and cooperating with eachother and with the confinedorreduced flat-top and the flared skirt of the lid to provide a readilyv formed completely tight closure readily opened by applying pressure to the conically widened edge ofthe lidat two oppositely disposed points inorder to permit the lid to be lifted. Y 1 .ERNST SCHMIDT. 

